Video iPod question - What is legal?

[AnnaK<3LMIP]

Posted: 5/29/07 at 2:22am

I've had a video iPod for about a year now and I've bought movies and shows throug itunes just fine but I've never figured out how to download my own movies that I bought from the store onto my iPod. I asked a worker at the iTunes store today and he said that downloading your own movies to your iPod is illegal. That's fine, I'll live, but why is it illegal? I paid for my DVD collection just like I paid for the movies I bought through the iTunes store.

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 5/29/07 at 11:41am

Not sure why that would be illegal except for the fact that you could share them at that point. In order to do it, you have to have a DVD ripper and then a converter. There are free converter programs, but I don't know about the ripper. I know it's easier on a Mac.

[handsome25]

Posted: 5/29/07 at 12:25pm

There is a ripping program called Handbrake. Do a google search and it's easy to find and the program is really easy to use.

[HeidiPuck]

Posted: 5/29/07 at 6:38pm

The legality has to do with breaking the encryption on a DVD in order to get it to your computer. While it's legal to make a backup copy, it's illegal to break the encryption (making any copying, ripping, etc. of a DVD, regardless of purpose, illegal). As far as I know, the people prosecuted for breaking encryption are the folks who have written the software to do it and those who have large bootleg rings.